Go ahead and make a page and then watch your stats to see if people look at it. Even with my own customers they've asked something and I'll say "well, what kind of traffic is the page getting?" and they'll say "oh I don't ever look at that stuff" Stats are the most important tool you have for continually working on your site. Most hosts have 3-4 stats programs that will tell your EVERYTHING from how many, what time, what pages did they look at, how long did they stay on the page (if a page takes a minute to read and they only stay 5 seconds you need to fix the page) where the visitor came from (what search engine or if they typed it in) even what type browser they were using...even the most basic stats will give you numbers, times, page views (which pages get how much traffic) etc.
SO USE your STATS at least once a month; they are a web developer's most important tool in determining if a page is "working"...like testimonials...if you have 200 visitors and only 3 even went to the testimonials page I'd drop it and add something more interesting. They can also tell you if something like a mailing or print ad "worked"...put your web site in bold letters then watch after you mail or the add runs...traffic should jump; if it doesn't that ad or mailing did little good because a % of readers will always go to the site.

As for the original question:
Rather than something "normal" like:
"These guys do a good job. I'd highly recommend them
Joe S."
Since nobody knows who "Joe S." is and most people don't want their full names on the web...

How about a page (if you have properties you do weekly or that for some other reason "stand out" from the ones around them title the page "See Our Work" Put a subheading like "anybody can make up testimonials, we're confident you will SEE the difference in our work. Take a look at:"

Then list the 4 or 8 addresses of those lawns that really stand out from the ones around them (ask the owner's permission) then if you get a BIG job (lots of dirt work, sod, shrubs... you will be there a while...on your home page put a "watch us work as we transform a landscape-we are working at 123 Thatstreet this week (weather permitting)

I was a contractor in another service industry for over 20 years, when I started my first web site in the 90's I always had a page of "where we are working this week" and I updated it with the projected schedule dates for upcoming work the first of each week followed by some recently completed jobs. It worked a lot better than the typical "testimonial" since people could SEE the difference in our work. (and now and then someone would come by and ask to speak to the "boss" since they had seen the job on the web site and when they came by it looked like we knew what we were doing ;) )

If you do a "regular" testimonials page make sure the people don't mind if you give out their phone number on an individual basis then put on the page "Testimonials listed - full names & phone numbers on request-just give us a call" then IF people do read the and it DOES matter at least you have them on the phone and you can find out what they need-offer to stop by for a free estimate, etc.

(BTW: Hope you have a good experience, the host you have has a very high dissatisfaction rating on a lot of the "host feedback" sites (the ones where the hosts don't pay for good ratings...which are 99% of "ratings" sites)

Kiril

12-01-2008, 09:12 PM

A guest book is a good "testimonial" page, if you can keep the spammers out.

Lawn-Scapes

12-02-2008, 11:24 AM

Thanks for the feedback!

Webman.. I always enjoy reading your responses. Always very well thought out with a lot of useful info. Thanks for that! In response to the host I'm using.. I hope I have a positive experience too. Why do they have a high dissatisfaction rating?